Nashwa can land quality Irish Champion Stakes for Hollie Doyle
The Irish Champions Stakes (3.20) is regularly regarded as one of Europe’s highest-quality Flat contests and it certainly doesn’t disappoint this time around.
Four of the top five in the betting are trained outside of Ireland and that can only be a good thing in terms of competition as they bid to deny Aidan O’Brien his 12th success in the €1.25million showpiece of the rechristened Irish Champions Festival.
O’Brien has landed each of the last four renewals and with 32 runners this weekend between Leopardstown, Haydock, the Curragh and Longchamp, the Ballydoyle maestro could yet hit another career milestone before tomorrow night.
The 53-year-old is just six successes short of the 4,000 mark as he continues to rewrite Irish racing’s record books – just Dermot Weld and Willie Mullins have trained more winners than him here.
Last year’s winner Luxembourg is the forgotten horse of his Irish Champions Stakes trio having not produced his best in recent months, but he is no back number if bouncing back.
Auguste Rodin leads the Ballydoyle team and having gotten the better of the Roger Varian-trained King Of Steel when that pair met in the Epsom Derby, the rematch takes place at the Foxrock track this afternoon.
Auguste Rodin had blotted his copybook badly prior to the Derby in the English 2,000 Guineas and he did so once again when running no sort of a race in the King George at Ascot last time out with no excuse forthcoming.
It’s hard to trust the son of Deep Impact given the quality of opposition and while the three-year-olds head the market, preference is for experience in this tasty renewal.
The Owen Burrows-trained Alflaila bids for a five-timer, but this will be the first time for the four-year-old to tackle Group One company and it will be quite the baptism against a stellar cast.
Last year’s runner-up Onesto is also of interest under Frankie Dettori, who made headlines this week after it was revealed that an agreement could not be reached with Listowel to ride at their Harvest Festival later this month.
Preference is for John and Thady Gosden’s Nashwa, however, having finished ahead of O’Brien’s all-conquering Paddington when second to stablemate Mostahdaf in last month’s Juddmonte International Stakes at York.
Hollie Doyle’s mount, a three-time Group One winner in fillies-only contests, was having her first start against the opposite sex that day and the daughter of Frankel has further improvement under the bonnet.
Peculiarly, the Coolmore America Justify Matron Stakes (2.45) is a not a Group One which O’Brien has farmed down through the years, with just three successes to his name.
He relies solely on Meditate this time and she will need to be back to her best to be competitive here as Tahiyra will take some beating under Chris Hayes.
Dermot Weld’s brilliant filly, beaten just once in five starts when narrowly touched off in the English 1,000 Guineas, has been freshened up for an autumn campaign since taking the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.
She has oozed class throughout her short career, while race sponsors Moyglare Stud are doubly represented via Homeless Songs and Just Beautiful.
Weld’s second-string Homeless Songs, a brilliant winner of last year’s Irish 1,000 Guineas, and Paddy Twomey’s Just Beautiful, both hold claims at their best, but they may all be playing for second behind Tahiyra.
Elsewhere, Joseph O’Brien’s Valiant King was just beaten in a Royal Ascot handicap before running into the brilliant Vauban at Naas and compensation may await in the Group Three Paddy Power Stakes (4.30) under Oisín Murphy.
